[Following Images leeched from SCG; please check out their articles, events, and consider giving them patronage for your mail order needs]

[^ Kobolds + Clamp is an actual deck]

It was a fan favorite because everyone loves artifacts; they can go in any deck, work with any color (at least prior to Future Sight block and Esper cards in Shards of Alar where artifacts gained color), and equipment (swords, armor) that make even lousy creatures powerful are exciting to even the most casual of players.

Indeed, other than perhaps Future Sight, Mirrodin has had the biggest single effect on Eternal formats than any set in history. Mishra's Workshop actually had something worthwhile to do for once (many targets such as Trinisphere becoming restricted immediately) and another colorless mox helped storm.

On the other hand, artifact lands which basically tapped for two mana each given the Affinity mechanic made it so there were only two decks to play: affinity, or mono-green artifact hate. While that made great sense thematically, and actually got some casual players into the tournament scene (everyone had the best deck!), a lot of people headed for the hills until bannings took place. Limited wasn't much better because it was hard to read signals when most of the cards you were passed were colorless. Until, of course, the third block came and weirdly wanted everyone to play 5color magic without giving them the tools to pull it off.

Still, by the time Mirrodin rotated from Extended, with the banning of Skullclamp and Disciple of the Vault (and the printing of an Artifact Creature lord in Shards of Alara), Ravager Affinity wasn't even a Tier 2 deck. It certainly wasn't helped when combat damage was removed from the stack as the primary Mirrodin ability, Modular, lost most of its tricks and incremental advantages. Plus, Frogmite looks silly next to Wild Nacatl.

Scars of Mirrodin, coming October 2010, revists the metallic plane we first saw in 2003.

While only two cards have been spoiled, Sword of Body and Mind (hinting at the revisitation of an equipment cycle) and a Cranial Extraction analog, we do have info on a new mechanic, Infect:

Quote:

This creature does damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters

The first part is akin to Wither (Shadowmoor) while the second brings back an age old secondary win mechanic, poison. 10 poison counters are fatal.

Poison has rarely been useful in the past because it's generally the equivalent of doing 2 regular damage, only with creatures that are otherwise inefficient, frail, and overcosted.

And of course, if poison ever took over a metagame, you could just sideboard in leeches:

Virulent Sliver was also part of the Hulk-Flash vintage kill before Reivellark was printed; funny enough, one of the two kills for the month that Hulk-Flash was legal in Legacy used Disciple of the Vault.

And yes, as of this morning, Snake Cult Initiation is sold out everywhere.

Because of course, everyone these days thinks that they're Magic Day-Traders.

from MTGSalvation:

Quote:

•It was believed that, at the end of the Mirrodin stories, Memnarch’s Soul Traps sucked all the life forms off of Mirrodin leaving the plane desolate and devoid of life. What wasn’t made clear in the novels was that the vortexes actually only pulled the original life forms that had been brought to Mirrodin, but they leave their progeny untouched.•Future Sight's Sarcomite Myr would seem a possible reprint but there isn't any evidence that it will be in Scars.•The set is followed by Mirrodin Besieged.•Three trademarks are unaccounted for: Mirrodin Pure, New Phyrexia and Dark Ascension

Some cards have a watermark (a symbol behind the textbox, similar to the guild symbos in Ravnica block) and some believe that has to do with the "affiliated" battles that are planned for various events. Some have even speculated that the second or third sets will have boxes divided into two sets of boosters, with allied creatures vs. phyrexians, etc. Others say that somehow player input will decide the storyline, who is victorious, etc.

Some cards have a watermark (a symbol behind the textbox, similar to the guild symbos in Ravnica block) and some believe that has to do with the "affiliated" battles that are planned for various events. Some have even speculated that the second or third sets will have boxes divided into two sets of boosters, with allied creatures vs. phyrexians, etc. Others say that somehow player input will decide the storyline, who is victorious, etc.

The rumor that I hear that is the most believable is that 'affiliated decks' will have wins tracked and will be used to determine what the third set in the block will be. This jives with a few things... Wizards trademarked four names and we know the names of the first two sets. Scars of Mirrodin for the first obviously and Mirrodin Besieged for the second. But they also have Mirrodin Pure and New Phyrexia trademarked. They've also released some of the rules for how affiliating decks works (must have ten cards from one faction maindeck, no cards from opposing in either main or sideboard). There is also somewhat of a precedent of this sort of thing; Warhammer 40k did something similar with the Eye of Terror campaign where the results of actual played games was used to shape the advancement of the storyline.

I'm also going out and saying again that Tezzeret will become Yawgmoth (Dark Ascension?). If you read the snippet of the novel that came with M11 he fits the bill. Tezzeret isn't his real name (he doesn't *have* a real name), he is obsessed with using 'technology' for lack of a better word to improve on the weakness of flesh, and just sort of all around fits the bill. I don't know if it will be him just taking over the mantle of Yawgmoth or being possessed by his spirit.

I'm not sure if you've seen any of the art floating around but there are a few things that look to be serious spoilers. Elspeth is featured in a LOT of art so she'll be involved even if she isn't reprinted (which I think she will be, if not here than in the next set). There is art called 'Mox Opal', no idea what it will do aside from tap for mana of some kind but still neat none the less. Also, Venser returns as 'Venser the Sojourner' and is likely a planeswalker based on previous story development. Also there is some art that looks a whole lot like Bosh.

Also, just today Evan Erwin has some keyword text that is supposedly spoiled from Scars that is a pretty big confirmation of what you mentioned:

As you said this is essentially Wither + Poison, though I'm curious how it will work against planeswalkers since they take damage redirected from a player and these creatures don't actually deal any damage per say. There has also been some discussion about using poison counters as design space past just an alternate win condition. Spells that have some extra oomph but apply poison counters to you (fits thematically with Phyrexia), spells that require and/or consume poison counters from you or an opponent, etc... I'd really like to see this explored, it seems very interesting.

Mirrodin is always a set that I've been conflicted about thematically.

I liked the direction it took Magic: each year we'll see a new, destinct world, with it's own personality. A goblin in Kamigawa will kill your family; a goblin in Lorwyn will steal your pies; and in Ravnica, they're mostly-loyal soldiers working for the police. We owe all of that to Mirrodin in a lot of ways.

OTOH, I don't think it leveraged "green [hates artifacts] vs. everything else [uses artifacts]" in an interesting way. I was hoping that Zendikar would revist artifact love/hate (buried treasures) in a more complex way, but the treasures were something else entirely.

And while the Voltron like aspect of the Kaldra cards was kinda cool when I saw it for the first time, it was completely silly to run up the flag pole as the guiding aspect of the set (examine the set symbols), especially since a Kaldra deck was less viable in standard than an Eldrazi temple deck (not viable at all).

I also didn't like what it did to shape White Weenie, dividing it into a hundred tribes that unite only as soldiers. We have leonin that only boost leonin, kithkin that boost kithkin (and somehow Elspeth likes them the most!), and Kor that only boost other Kor. Of course, soldier lords boost most of them (but not all of the ones you'd consider playable, from springjack knight to serra avenger), but still, it also means that WW will never be as competitive as goblins or merfolk for older formats.

While I was initially awed by equipment, I think its become too obvious in both limited and constructed, especially in the latter where it's quickly discovered what's awesome and what's unplayable (and the gulf is nearly always that wide).

Indestructible made white better, which is both nice white and kind of stupid that something that's supposed to be so awe inspiring is negligible in practice.

I love the aesthetics of glimmervoid

OTOH, I hated cloudpost decks online where people would spend infinite mana just twiddling with staff of domination for 20 minutes without a clear way to kill you on the spot. "Locuses" are coming back, evidently, with a glimmer one, and cloudpost was recently passed out to standard players to whet their appetite for casual table degeneracy.

From the MTGSalvation compiled info, it looks like the theme decks (glad they're back up to 60 cards!) are fairly conservative in their color choices and that dragons, angels, demons, and...

Sphinxes are all acounted for. Fucking sphinxes. All the blue creatures in Mirrodin were beasts or drones or drakes or BRINGERS.

Are the planeswalkers foil? It looks like they're not on the SCG package mockup. I hope they're regular.

Rustic Clachan as a rare? Seriously?

I don't understand the swords to plowshares art; it's also worse than path to exile for a beatdown deck. I think it's sad to further encourage people to break up these sets past the "just buy it for elspeth!" point that already exists, which is pretty much the only reason for the inclusion of swords and mishra's factory.

I also don't understand the factory art. If you're inside it, how's it gonna attack you? Plus, I'm one of those sad sacks that plays one of each of all the seasonal factories in my one deck that plays them. What can I say, it makes me happy.

This is the third "casual" artifact deck they've released. Can we get some new rares please?

The monocolor nature of all the duel decks (minus one) really sucks any fun out of them imo.

***The news about prefabbed FNM viable decks being sold is intriguing. OTOH, will they all be burn? (the only other consistantly cheap deck type is combo like time sieve that new players can't really hang with.) Will they have cards that aren't otherwise legal in the format? I know they have to curb the $500 deck thing going on, but I have a hard time seeing how this solution, whatever it is, will be better for both players and the corporate suits.

This set has me fairly intrigued. More so than the Zendikar block. Stuff with Mirrodin is always cool, because the last Mirrodin block was full of small artifacts that could be used anywhere (basically, a toolbox).

Poison coming back is cool, I'll have to try to make a poison deck soon. Doubling Season wouldn't work with it right? (I guess not, I do not believe the poison counters are under my control).

The new sword is alright. After re-reading it, I don't think its as good as Sword of Fire and Ice.

Not sure if it'll see play. White has lost a few removal cards (not sure if people will be wanting to play condemn), but it seems like it comes down a little bit too late. OTOH, it makes me mad to see another mythic strictly above the curve (for what artifact creatures usually get for the mana cost).

The next Sarhkahn Vol (value drops like a stone after hype)? No real defense unless you have like Nekratal out our something, with a mostly non synergistic middle ability, it seems strictly win-more.

The next Sarhkahn Vol (value drops like a stone after hype)? No real defense unless you have like Nekratal out our something, with a mostly non synergistic middle ability, it seems strictly win-more.

Combos well with a lot of blue/white stuff. Aether Adept, Wall of Omens, etc... Also, you can use him to reset one of your walkers back to default counters. Another trick is that you can bounce him, or a creature, to make it immune to your sweepers. Exile your Baneslayer or Titan, cast Day of Judgement and get it back after the damage is done.

Just thought of another. If you need a mana for an instant speed spell you can bounce of your tapped lands until EOT. Not ideal but a possible way to free up Mana Leak mana or something.

Combos well with a lot of blue/white stuff. Aether Adept, Wall of Omens, etc... Also, you can use him to reset one of your walkers back to default counters. Another trick is that you can bounce him, or a creature, to make it immune to your sweepers. Exile your Baneslayer or Titan, cast Day of Judgement and get it back after the damage is done.

Just thought of another. If you need a mana for an instant speed spell you can bounce of your tapped lands until EOT. Not ideal but a possible way to free up Mana Leak mana or something.

All nifty tricks, but my gut says they're not going to be good enough for most decks on a 5cc card, especially when you consider how fast the format is looking to be.

Three turn clock with haste mana. (also, regenerate + wither is kinda hot, but if you can't block baneslayer, wtf is the point)

I'm not sure if anything black just gets new phyrexia branding or what; the black myrs count as coalition, though. Or is it just anything with infect keyword? All in all, it doesn't seem very sophisticated. I guess instead of Green vs. Everything now Mirrodin is Black vs. Everything. Could be neat, but not quite what I was expecting. Green is also getting the most spoiled "metalcraft" cards, which doesn't quite fit imo.

It seems strictly win-more to me: sort of like Immaculate Magistrate in elves. Sure it's awesome, but then you could just win on the spot with Overrun in those situations anyway and not risk losing to a single lightning bolt.

I've played Chimeric Idol (and won games with it in fact) so this is nice and works in a wider variety of decks. OTOH, we still have tons of manlands in the format, which generally work better in control decks. And yes, it's coalition not phyrexia, even though it feels kind of darkish to me (I always played Idol in mbc).

Strictly better than Platinum Angel if you're cheating it into play; still, better options in the older formats like Blazing Archon (which doesn't die to artifact hate). If you're up against storm, though, they'd have to bounce this new guy before going off, rather than waiting until next turn to wish or tutor for it.

Kind of baddass if you ever got it running. That's a lot of mana though.

And fuck Mindslaver.

And small sets. Fuck worldwake. Used to be a small set would give you a good chance at one or more money cards + enough variety that you wouldn't go *totally* mental if you had to draft three packs of it solo to use it up if you bought a box. Who wants to do that for a set with nearly the same number of commons and rares?

A lot of people are speculating Retract (play free stuff over and over again for storm) might be a fun budget deck in legacy; worth picking up a playset for $2.

Also, power artifact rebounded back to the last rush price ($25); people came to their senses last time and they probably will again. "Yes, play cards that will almost guarantee I'll get 2 for 1'd!" Scroll Rack is still 2x what it was before Ben Bleiweiss sent people into a frenzy over nothing. OTOH, I'm sure EDH might be driving some of the interest, too, obviously, but it's hard to say with them still have tons in stock and no real desire to move them.

I'm kinda betting against them (Invigorate + berserk for the win!) since that's usually how it works out in the end; hell, the traps mechanic won more constructed tournaments than Eldrazi [spawn/temple/eye of ugin] did. Hell, Timespiral block could have had madness decsk, suspend decks, etc., but they were all invalidated by Teferi. It's kind of the way wizards prefers to work [hint, play blue]: I'm guessing they don't want poison to be the next affinity season and they powered it accordingly. Just guessing.

Didn't realize Mindslaver was legendary (not that it comes up).

Could combo neatly, but it's too vulnerable with only 4 of them in your deck and nothing else quite like it. (Which is why Goblin Welder doesn't get much play)

It's good but it's not like the secondary abilities are necessary and it's not like it can race baneslayer. OTOH, after all the generic Vampire mythics we've had over the past year, it's not like he can feel that much more epic than them, which is sad, because he certainly looks bad ass.

Kind of surprised by the Myr lord...you'll be able to get infinite tokens/mana by turn four or five with a few different combos with that lord (turn four with the lord, any mana myr, and splinter twin).

Kind of surprised by the Myr lord...you'll be able to get infinite tokens/mana by turn four or five with a few different combos with that lord (turn four with the lord, any mana myr, and splinter twin).

Yeah, I think every deck is going to need to play some low curve disruption. Lots of way to combo out with this guy/voltaic key/palladium myr/etc. Of course it is vulnerable to tons of disruption as well (pretty much anything that can kill a creature) but if you don't have any removal gg.

It's good but it's not like the secondary abilities are necessary and it's not like it can race baneslayer. OTOH, after all the generic Vampire mythics we've had over the past year, it's not like he can feel that much more epic than them, which is sad, because he certainly looks bad ass.

Flores tries to convince us that it being all over the map is a good thing; I'm not convinced. Walkers that can't defend themselves and/or red have a bad track record. It's funny that the ultimate ability used to be black though. I'd like it more if it were a three mana walker that made a 3/3 mountain, so at least you'd have the obvious path of goblin guide, dragonlord, walker to run out. Of course, then it couldn't take out wall of omens by itself. OTOH, it might be too slow at 4 mana.

Reminds me of the thing from 9.

It's a shame that we're losing borderposts and that they were really never playable outside of timesieve (who wants to lose mega ultra tempo vs. maelstrom pulse). I'm sure we're going to have some great artifacts, but I really wonder if they can surpass the legacy superstars of inkwell leviathan and robo-akroma (sphinx of the steel wind) when it comes to pure power + resiliance in actual, interactive, game scenarios. Not that Darksteel Colossus can't be bad ass to power out on turn five or six in Standard, only that any dumb fat that catches on can easily be dealt with by the meta for the most part.

People are buying old myr shit up like crazy. But it's like, what format are you really going to play myr matrix + lord in? Super-extended someday? Don't think it'll keep up with thopter-depths.

All three planeswalkers are preselling for $40. Good grief. and yet they're giving out foil day of judgments if you compete in 20 FNMs -- 20! -- as if wrath of god is hot shit as a mere rare that's $2.50.

Ben goes all out to say that mythics have made rares cheaper and that's good for the game: it's cute that he says he's upset by Jace creeping towards $100, but then he goes and compares Future Sight to Worldwake as if it's apples to apples.

*First, there were more rares in Future Sight meaning there was more variance, a full spectrum between "dual land and bulk rare."

*Yes, the duals in Future Sight were worth more at the end of their life. OTOH, they were competing with, um, Lorwyn tribal duals and ancient painlands (that no longer had any real value due to reprinting). There weren't fetches in the format. Tricolor lands. The new M10 duals.

*The odds of landing a Goyf from a box are like two and a half to three times higher than pulling Jace.

*when rares are worth more, packs are on average worth more and you can make better trades.

Peter Jahn and Abe Sargent were let go from SCG. I didn't always get much use out of their articles, but they're both people I unapologetically like as people, something I can't say for most magic writers (I'm a fan of Menendian, Silvestri, PV, Elias; what they have in common, I guess, is that they're grown ups or at least want to be).

And as someone who has written for feminist publications, I'm still skeptical of all the female writers they're bringing in because they really don't have any credibility, writing record, or community ties outside of a very narrow connection to a few guys acting as gurus, and are basically just being put out for dudes to argue about whether they'd "hit that"; I can't see that getting more women interesting in the game. And I'm guessing Ingrid Lind-Jahn -- who pretty much outranks any of the "gamergirlz" SCG is trying to put together -- isn't especially happy how her husband was just treated. I dunno: maybe putting them on is a good start, and I'm sure the first generation of male writers had limited credibility too and most of the chaff has just been forgotten in time.

Peter Jahn and Abe Sargent were let go from SCG. I didn't always get much use out of their articles, but they're both people I unapologetically like as people, something I can't say for most magic writers (I'm a fan of Menendian, Silvestri, PV, Elias; what they have in common, I guess, is that they're grown ups or at least want to be).

That's a bummer. I wasn't the biggest fan of Jahn but Abe Sargent wrote interesting and fun casual stuff that is a portion of the game that gets pretty heavily neglected at SCG. I guess being a 'premium' Magic site aimed heavily at the competitive community doesn't leave too terribly much room for a dude who writes on strictly *very* casual stuff.

I enjoy Cedric's stuff along with Sheldon, Chapin, Wakefield, and Bennie Smith (how's that for a swing in the content type?).

Yeah, I don't mind them doing a shakeup, but it's not like anyone has a picture of what's going on, they didn't hold try-outs like in the days of yore, etc., and I think the cubedrafting column is way more silly and redundant than any of the casual stuff that's going on now (and Jahn and Abe both produced completely unique content and I don't think Jahn is casual at all; who else is playing a score of PT winning decks over 10 years against each other?). I also don't think that SCG has to "worry" about people reading Channelfireball, too, like they have to totally crush them like a bug or something. The chances of SCG obtaining 100% of all credible pro writers is nil at this point, anyway.

Part of the reason I like Magic is that there's enough to think and talk about that I can waste 20 minutes a day (more than enough to read two or three articles at both sites + the mothership) with new articles; that's something I never got out of playing Counter-Strike or whatnot.